[iliri]

{Springpaw}

Springpaw’s eyes darted towards the ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice as she howled out her words. Each word sounding more and more spiteful than the last. Pits and pits of unsettling guilt, anger, and fear began to tremble before her like an heavy downpour. There was already enough anger as it is, and the disputing of this entire issue had only seemed to grow more and more by the second. It felt like this wasn’t even her clan anymore. All this fighting. All this arguing. It just doesn’t make sense for this to keep happening. Her paws felt numb against the cold ground, the roaring of the storm becoming more and more distorted in her ears. Her mind felt like it was clouded with cobwebs and fuzz. It felt as if her breathing became more heavy, her lungs desperately trying to take in more air. Her throat felt like it was lodged. Tightly, Springpaw shut her eyes, sinking her claws into the ground below. The usually vibrant-white fur around her paws caking with a murky brown. She didn’t want to hear any more of the fighting. The loud howls and shrills of angered spats becoming more and more louder in her ears. She wanted it to stop.

Her eyes suddenly opened wide as soon as she heard the loud roar of thunder, her eyes ripping upwards towards the sound. All that caught her vision was the dark, dim color of utter gray. The moon wasn’t there. All that remaining was dark pits of gray and thunder growing more louder. A sign from StarClan. StarClan was angry. A rhythm of ice-cold rain followed suite. Her pastel orange-and-gray fur slowly soaking to the brim by the now pouring rain. Her whiskers now constantly twitching to fling away any droplets of ice-cold water. Her vision constantly blurred by the water hitting at her eyes, causing her eyelids to flutter every second. Cinderpaw’s words had became distorted in her brain, but she had at least some consciousness to hear her say for all the apprentices to gather. Shoving herself a deep breath, Springpaw’s deep blue gaze focused towards Cardinalpaw. A pang of shame ran through the calico, her soaking fur desperately fluffing itself out. The cold rain wasn’t helping at all with the young apprentice’s growing ease.

“I… I’m sorry that you had to hear all of this.” She spoke quietly, her voice merely a whisper in its path. The words felt… so wrong to say. They felt like they didn’t want to come out. Almost like that wanted to shove themselves back down her throat and never be seen again. Shakily, she took in a deep breath and spoke once more, her voice louder this time. “I’ll… see you in the next gathering, Cardinalpaw. If it isn’t like this.” Her voice wavered the confidence it needed, her eyes meeting theirs. She didn’t want to ask how Cardinalpaw felt at the moment. She must’ve known how they could’ve felt though. With a short, quick nod of her head, Springpaw turned and began to follow the trail of apprentices back towards camp. Her home that didn’t even feel like home anymore. Her legs felt so numb. Weak. Shaky in every step. She didn’t want to look back at the drama. Nor did she want to hear any of it anymore. It just felt wrong. This wasn’t espoused to happen at all.

@carmen [Open to anyone else ]